Light-Blue Horse of Nikolai Gogol's Nozdryov: Color Terms and Equine Coat Colors

Nozdryov in the “Dead Souls” by Nikolai V. Gogol boasted of his unusual horses with light-blue or pink equine coat color. Were these animals mythical? Did they inhabit Russia? This paper deals with the issue of so-called blue horses. The commenting on this passage in the Gogol’s “Dead Souls” requires an appeal to linguistic aspects of the literary text. Color terms among Slavs (and specifically in the Old Russian and Russian languages) have been actively studied by many scientists, but the reconstructed picture is still not quite detailed. Besides, the vocabulary of hippology in the Slavic languages is very ancient, with its own characteristics and difficult to study. The texts created by practicing horse breeders and owners make it possible to clarify the conclusions of the linguists. The so-called “goluboy” (light-blue) equine coat color has been known in Russia for a long time. “Light-blue horses” were first mentioned in the Novgorod birch bark of the 13th century. Now such equine coat color is called “myshastaya” (mousey, like a mouse). The term “goluboy” (“light-blue”) could previously be understood as gray. The coat color of “light-blue” (mousey) horses is ash-gray, with a black mane, tail, and legs. These horses were highly valued. However, Gogol's hero Nozdryov could mean unprecedented, extraordinary light-blue (sky-blue) animals, in accordance with the contemporary understanding of this color, given that he was boasting.

Nikolai Gogol, “Dead Souls”, equine coat colors, color terms, “light-blue horses”, dictionaries, semantics, proverbs and sayings